DAVIS, WEST VIRGINIA—Mountain bike racers will proudly bring their
trophies with them on every ride this year. Top finishers at 24 Hour
Race Series events are taking home custom-embroidered Platypus hydration
packs.

The awards virtually guarantee that the fastest racers in the country
will be wearing Platypus packs for training and racing, noted Laird
Knight, president of Granny Gear Productions, which produces the race
series.

"If you had a choice of wearing any old pack or a new pack embroidered
with your top placing at a 24 hour race, which would you choose?" Knight
asked.

Each member of the top three teams in the race's 14 categories receive
the packs. "We give out close to 150 packs as trophies at each of our
three events," Knight said.

"The trophy program is a win-win-win situation," Knight said. "Instead
of cheap trophies, the racers get the finest hydration packs in the
market, worth $75 or $80. Platypus gets to have all of the top racers
in their respective classes proudly wearing their superior flexible
hydration systems and spreading the word about how great they work.
And we, as the race promoters, get to give our racers something really
unique," he said.

Each trophy pack is embroidered with the team's placing and category.
There is a different design for each Series event. First place packs
are embroidered in gold thread, second place gets silver and third a
bronze color. The embroidery is done in West Virginia, where Granny
Gear is based.

Platypus hydration packs are manufactured by Cascade Designs, a Seattle
outdoor equipment supplier. This is the second year Platypus has sponsored
the 24 Hour Race Series, said Michele Porter, Cascade's bicycle market
manager.

"One of the key reasons we are involved in the 24 Hour events is to
get Platypus brand more exposure and gain better brand awareness in
the bike market. As a sponsor of the races, the exposure for Platypus
is wonderful and we know that most participants in 24 hour races rely
on a hydration pack to get them through the event," she said.

New Platypus packs features Hyperflow bite valves that offer more
than double the flow of previous valves. New Platypus packs also allow
easy access to the bladder and feature innovative DirectFlow hose routing.
Instead of traveling up and over the rider's shoulder, the hose exits
from the pack bottom, improving flow.

Granny Gear Productions created 24-Hour relay mountain bike racing
in 1992. Its races emphasize teamwork and fun. Granny Gear's 2000 24
Hour Race Series includes:
The Toyota 24 Hours of Snowshoe, (in West Virginia June 10th and 11th);
The 3rd Annual 24 Hours of Tahoe (at Northstar at Tahoe, August 26th
and 27th); and
The 6th Annual 24 Hours of Moab (in an area called "Behind the Rocks"
in Moab, Utah, October 14th and 15th).